Star Citizen’s Kickstarter campaign began in 2012 and smashed its goal of $500,000, ending up with over $2 million.

Crowdfunding continued on the developers’s website and they have been just hurtling through milestones like a bull in china shop.

As 2017 dawns, the current total stands at over $141 million, and they’re a fifth of the way to the next million dollars.

Following the recently released alpha 2.6, Cloud Imperium Games released a community highlights reel with in-game footage recorded by players using the new director mode, and creator Chris Roberts sent out a New Year’s message (via Dual Shockers) detailing plans for 2017.

“Happy New Year!

“There are many exciting things in store for Star Citizen this year. We’ll continue to modify and improve our game engine to better suit Star Citizen’s unique needs. Gameplay will get deeper as new systems come online to provide players the chance to do more than pew-pew. I also expect exciting advancements as we integrate our revolutionary tech, like subsumption and procedural planets, into the game. On the Community front, we’ll be releasing Spectrum, our new and improved community platform, and revamping our current shows and adding new ones in an effort to best communicate with all of you.

“This week Star Citizen devs got back to work after some much deserved time off. Presently the Production Team is huddled with the different team leads updating and detailing out the tasks we have for this year. You’ll begin to see some of these details once we’ve had the opportunity to refine the Star Citizen and Squadron 42 schedules.

“We were happy to see positive feedback from the Alpha 2.6 release and impressed by the number of stunning videos and images being created with the new camera controls. We have been digesting both our own and your thoughts on Alpha 2.6 now that it has been live for two weeks. We are planning releasing an incremental patch, 2.6.1 with some of the features that slipped out of 2.6, bug fixes for increased stability (although 2.6 was possibly our most stable patch to date) as well as continued balance and gameplay tweaks. Expect to hear more details on timing in the next couple of weeks.

“2016 was a noteworthy year in Star Citizen’s development. 2017 with Squadron 42 and Alpha 3.0 is looking to be even better.”

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2017/01/09/star-citizen-hits-141m-in-crowdfunding-and-keeps-on-going/feed/0Star Citizen unlocks all flyable ships for backers, for a limited timehttps://www.vg247.com/2016/10/12/star-citizen-unlocks-all-flyable-ships-for-backers-for-a-limited-time/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/10/12/star-citizen-unlocks-all-flyable-ships-for-backers-for-a-limited-time/#respondWed, 12 Oct 2016 09:55:05 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=603767To celebrate Citizen Con, all Star Citizen backers get to try out flyable ships for a few days.

Citizen Con 2016, Star Citizen’s fan convention, just wrapped up over the weekend. It’s there we heard about the delay of Squadron 42 – the game’s single-player module.

As a way of celebrating the game’s community, the studio announced that all backers can try any of the game’s flyable ships, for free, whether or not they own it. This is only for a limited time, however, and the deadline is Monday, October 17.

This won’t mean much to those yet to enter the world of Star Citizen, but if you don’t have many ships in your inventory, it could be a way to convince you to buy more.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/10/12/star-citizen-unlocks-all-flyable-ships-for-backers-for-a-limited-time/feed/0The best bit of the Star Citizen Citizencon stream was clearly this giant sandwormhttps://www.vg247.com/2016/10/11/the-best-bit-of-the-star-citizen-citizencon-stream-was-clearly-this-giant-sandworm/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/10/11/the-best-bit-of-the-star-citizen-citizencon-stream-was-clearly-this-giant-sandworm/#respondTue, 11 Oct 2016 00:03:18 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=603533Star Citizen gets a bit Dune, a bit phallic and a bit shit-your-pants in this snippet of footage from a recent fan event.

Taken from the Star Citizen CitizenCon stream, the snippet of footage above was uploaded by fan channel Star Citizen Universe.

According to Star Citizen fans on Reddit who were watching the full stream, the console you see part way through was an accidental restart of the scripted events of the demo, which is why it ends suddenly.

Apparently the stream then took another look at the worm but at the end of the encounter the camera zoomed out through the atmosphere, allowing viewers to see how Star Citizen’s engine displayed it at different scales.

Anyway, there you go: it’s a giant sandworm in Star Citizen. Given this was a scripted event it might have been part of a mission. Unfortunately the Star Citizen story campaign has been delayed so we probably won’t see this in playable form for a while yet.

There is absolutely no need to leave half a dozen quotes from Dune in the comments section; surely nobody could view this footage and think of anything else.

The campaign and the MMO aspects of the game were split back in February giving players the choice of their preferred experience without having to be lumped with additional content they had no desire to play. Of course, if you’re looking to play both, you can pick up both packages.

Squadron 42 initially had a rather vague 2016 release window, but Eurogamer reported that Cloud Imperium Games’ Chris Roberts broke the news of the delay during the Citizencon livestream.

“As much as we wanted to have Squadron 42 for this year, it’s not going to be this year,” Roberts said, explaining that most of the 28 chapters are still in their preliminary stages.

The new isn’t going to be a huge surprise to those following development, and the lack of a new release date – placeholder or otherwise – indicates there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Star Citizen’s main thrust may be space exploration, but that doesn’t mean Roberts Space Industries skipped out on your standard first-person shooting combat either. A new gameplay video is available which showcases Star Citizen’s “Visual Stabilization” system – a fancy term for how the camera no longer bounces along with your character model’s head. Which is great, because you can really enjoy the gorgeously rendered settings and combat when you aren’t distracted by nauseous movement.

The video takes its protagonist on a shooting spree across one of the in-game storefronts, showing off different weapons and their effects on enemy units. “There’s no better way to showcase our improved Vision Stabilization system than to head into Port Olisar and cause some chaos,” the Star Citizen post explains. “With plenty of aiming, shooting, and handling of weapons, this 60 frames per second video highlights just one of the many great features we’re currently working on.”

Outside of the improvements to motion, the video certainly highlights the potential for solid combat, complete with surprisingly satisfying weapon animations. Here’s hoping those systems hold up in the finished game, where you’ll be fighting more far more hostile enemies than helpless NPC merchants.

PCGamesN reports that one crafty dataminer has managed to uncover a gigantic, sprawling 3D model of one of Star Citizen’s sci-fi cities within the game’s files.

Called ‘Terra Prime v2’, the city asset was extracted from the game’s Patch v2.5 update, before being reconstructed and then uploaded to 3D model sharing site Sketchfab by Max, who had to compress the massive city into a measly 200MB to fall under Sketchfab’s file size limitations.

Max notes that the file – like the city itself – is huge, consuming almost 2GB of RAM. So make sure you’re on a beefy enough laptop or desktop before you buckle in for your virtual space tour of Terra Prime V2.

The interactive viewer below lets you do just this, while the video above gives you a behind the scenes look at just how Max carried out this herculean task.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/09/14/star-citizen-dataminer-interactive-city-model/feed/0No Man’s Sky planetary landings got nothing on Star Citizen’shttps://www.vg247.com/2016/08/23/no-mans-sky-planetary-landings-got-nothing-on-star-citizens/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/08/23/no-mans-sky-planetary-landings-got-nothing-on-star-citizens/#respondTue, 23 Aug 2016 12:16:08 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=598008The gamescom 2016 demo of Star Citizen updates everyone on the progress the game has made since its last showing.

Star Citizen development appears to be coming along nicely. Developer Chris Roberts showed off over 50 minutes of footage from the game’s 3.0 build to gamescom 2016 attendees, revealing the different types of gameplay the game allows.

The video, which you can watch above, starts by showing off the player getting into a Freelancer ship, before heading off to a planet. The game’s transition from space into planetary atmosphere is very impressive, even more or so when you consider the things you can do on planet surfaces and how good it looks.

The player then proceeds to land at a port on that planet and go out of the ship and meet a contact in some bar. The NPC the player meets is fully voiced and animated, and gives him a quest to retrieve an item from a from a destroyed ship. After kicking things off and heading to the required point, we begin to see some zero-g action.

The shooter part doesn’t look to be fully formed yet, but it’s quite the thing to move from from the interior of your ship, head to space, and into the interior of another ship and go in guns blazing. There’s also a look at a space bike, which the player used to travel to and from his ship.

This video was posted to the Star Citizen YouTube channel this week. It’s a track by Goteki feat. Julia Tregenza, and was put together by the Star Citizen community under the leadership of producer Disco Lando and director Years1Hundred. We have no further information about it.

If you would like to learn more about Star Citizen and possibly solve the mystery of this video, why not try it out for free over the next week? According to RedditorSilkyZ, the space sandbox will be free to download and play from July 15 through July 24, US time; just register for free on Roberts Space Industries and then download the client once the promotion goes live.

If the answer turns out to be something along the lines of “community obsesses over common asset”, please do not report back. I would prefer to live in ignorance, with my wild theories and speculation.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/07/15/presented-without-comment-star-citizen-the-ballad-of-big-bennys/feed/0Mark Hamill “didn’t even have to read the script” to sign on to Squadron 42https://www.vg247.com/2016/05/16/mark-hamill-squadron-42-star-citizen/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/05/16/mark-hamill-squadron-42-star-citizen/#respondMon, 16 May 2016 06:02:29 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=582934Star Citizen: Squadron 42 has an all-star cast, and at least one member was on board from day one, no questions asked.

Mark Hamill “didn’t even have to read the script” to sign on to Squadron 42

Star Wars star Mark Hamill signed on to play a role in Star Citizen’s story campaign, Squadron 42, without a second thought.

Speaking to PC World, Hamill said he liked Wing Commander and now Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts from the moment they met, which made it easy for him to resume their collaboration.

“I really didn’t understand what a leap forward the technology has taken over time, so I had no expectation,” he said.

“I thought this was a closed chapter in my life, and when [Roberts] called and said, I’d like you to do this, I didn’t even have to read the script. I accepted immediately because I trust him so deeply.”

Musing on the difference between Wing Commander and Squadron 42, Hamill said that the live-action video sequences in the former series were cutting edge at the time. The effect achieved by performance capture for modern games blows it out of the water.

“The technology now is the next generation of the facial rigs and the full 3D scans of the actors, and it allows so much more detail and nuance,” he said.

“This is integrating the characters into its own world, so there’s a cohesion to all the elements, and it’s extraordinary. You put these rigs on and they’ve got these cameras on your face. They’ve got so many different cameras around the studio.”

Elaborating on the set-up at Andry Serkis’s The Imaginarium Studios, Hamill said there up to three camera on each face and 50 focused on body performance.

“So you’re in this bare-bones studio with apple boxes for chairs and just the basic rudimentary wood structures to approximate the cockpits and so forth, and yet when you look on the screen, you see what they’re getting. It’s totally realized,” he said.

“So it’s almost beyond even doing some of the stuff that you do on green screen, where you look at the drawing and get an idea of what’s eventually to come down the road. It’s very exciting.

“I can’t tell you how exciting it is to always be at least close to cutting-edge technology. I’ve been so lucky in my career, not just in Star Wars, but with Wing Commander, and now with Squadron 42.”

The full interview is a fascinating look at how performance capture is moving beyond voice acting and opening new avenues for actors – as well as wonderful effects in-game.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/05/16/mark-hamill-squadron-42-star-citizen/feed/0Play Star Citizen free through Valentine’s Dayhttps://www.vg247.com/2016/02/10/star-citizen-free/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/02/10/star-citizen-free/#respondWed, 10 Feb 2016 02:22:18 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=569249Star Citizen is free for several days, giving you a chance to make up your mind before it becomes more expensive.

This doesn’t mean anything to those who’ve already bought Star Citizen (all backers with Squadron 42 access will still receive both games), but for newcomers it means ponying up more than if they’d picked the two games up as one package before the split occurs.

While Roberts Space Industries hasn’t completely finalised the pricing details, at present it aims to offer individual modules for $45. The other half of the game can then be purchased as an add-on for $15, bringing the total price to $50. Right now, you can grab both for $45.

It’s only a $5 discount, then, and you’d be forgiven for being unsure about buying in to an early access game – but there’s a handy solution. Right now Star Citizen is playable for free, and will remain free through February 14, when the split occurs.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/02/10/star-citizen-free/feed/0Star Citizen and Squadron 42 to break up on Valentine’s Dayhttps://www.vg247.com/2016/02/01/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-to-break-up-on-valentines-day/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/02/01/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-to-break-up-on-valentines-day/#respondMon, 01 Feb 2016 05:42:54 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=567512Star Citizen has one foot out the door and Squadron 42 keeps making passive aggressive comments. Probably.

Star Citizen story module Squadron 42 is ready to strike out and forge a new life for itself.

As announced in December, the campaign mode is going solo, and will be available either as a standalone product or add-on to the base sandbox game. This division will occur on February 14, which is pzuzlingly anti-thematic; Valentine’s Day is the day we try very hard not to break up.

Well, whatever: if you’re keen on the star-studded story but can’t be arsed with the open-ended sim MMO, you’ll be able to pick up one without the other – and vice versa, of course.

If you do want both modules, you might want to consider picking them up as a package by pledging the appropriate amount to the crowdfunding campaign before the big day; it’ll save you a few dollars, apparently.

Visit Roberts Space Industries for more information. Neither module has been dated for full release, although they’re expected this year.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/02/01/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-to-break-up-on-valentines-day/feed/0Anyone can try Star Citizen free for the next weekhttps://www.vg247.com/2016/01/30/anyone-can-try-star-citizen-free-for-the-next-week/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/01/30/anyone-can-try-star-citizen-free-for-the-next-week/#respondSat, 30 Jan 2016 18:23:38 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=567273You can give Star Citizen a try for the next week if you’re keen.

According to the post, the Free Fly event gives everyone access to three parts of Star Citizen, and is the first Free Fly to include Crusader. All Free Fly accounts will have access to the Hornet F7C military fighter, the Aurora LN starter and the Mustang Delta interceptor.

Here’s what’s included in the trial:

Star Citizen Alpha 2.1.2 – Also known as Crusader or the “mini-PU,” it features multiple space stations and environments, scripted missions, places to explore and more.

Arena Commander – Arena Commander is a ‘game within a game’ used to develop flight mechanics and ship combat balance. Take on human opponents or an AI swarm in single seat fighter.

Social Module – Interact with other players while and explore the first landing zone, ArcCorp. The Social Module is intended as a starting point for world building.

To get started, all you have to do is set up an account if you don’t have one already from the previous Free Fly event.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2016/01/30/anyone-can-try-star-citizen-free-for-the-next-week/feed/0Star Citizen behind the scenes video shows Gillian Anderson in actionhttps://www.vg247.com/2016/01/22/star-citizen-gillian-anderson-video/
https://www.vg247.com/2016/01/22/star-citizen-gillian-anderson-video/#respondFri, 22 Jan 2016 00:59:25 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=566006Scully from the X-Files has found her way aboard a starship somehow in this new Star Citizen video.

Gillian Anderson stars in Squadron 42, the single-player portion of Star Citizen, and in a new behind-the-scenes video released by RSI we get to see her in a mo-cap suit, holding a pretend gun and pretending to fly a pretend spaceship. Welp, there goes the magic.

Cloud Imperium has revealed another impressive facet of technology behind Star Citizen in a new trailer. The trailer, titled “From Pupil to Planet” puts the game’s procedurally-generated planet systems on full display, starting off with a crafted ship hangar on the planet’s surface, and going all the way back to space.

Everything is running in-game, in real-time, according to the trailer, though it does describe it was a work-in-progress prototype. The need for such a system came from the fact that it would be impossible to fit such well-detailed planets in memory, and so they rely on this technology in conjunction with a camera-based LOD approach.

Watch and marvel.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/12/17/star-citizens-latest-impressive-video-shows-procedurally-generated-planet-bits/feed/0Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 now available, funding reaches over $100 millionhttps://www.vg247.com/2015/12/12/star-citizen-alpha-2-0-released/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/12/12/star-citizen-alpha-2-0-released/#respondSat, 12 Dec 2015 16:03:28 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=562427Star Citizen’s Alpha 2.0 version is now available for all backers to play.

The Alpha contains space combat in a large area, first-person battles and multi-crew ships.

Features:

EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) – drift out of your ship’s airlock and venture into the void of space and back

Quantum travel – travel in ships through the vastness of space at 0.2 the speed of light

New flyable ships including the Constellation, the Retaliator and the Vanguard.

Large world tech – explore extremely large expanses of space seamlessly, without loading screens

New locations:

One planet (Crusader)

Three moons

Three distinct space stations

One repair/restock station

Nine comm arrays: Wreckage to scavenge and never-ending battles in the Yela asteroid belt; more

Cloud Imperium also announced funding for the title has reached over $100 million, it has over one million “citizens” and 32-thousand fan-created organizations – the largest of which has over 11,000 people.

A new Star Citizen trailer debuted at The Game Awards 2015 to honour the launch of the space sim’s second major alpha release.

The gameplay-heavy trailer is full of vim and vigour – and is it just me, or does the soundtrack channel a little Mass Effect?

Mark Hamill, who has an important role in campaign mode Squadron 42, was on stage partially to promote Star Citizen, although he threw a bit of Star Wars and Joker love in there because why wouldn’t you. Chris Roberts was also in attendance.

In addition, for the next week, everyone with a registered account with the game has free access to three ships to play in Arena Commander:
Aurora MR, Mustang Alpha and Gladius.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/12/04/star-citizen-alpha-2-0-gameplay-trailer-debuts-at-the-game-awards-2015/feed/0Watch Mark Hamill talk about his role in Star Citizen, Wing Commanderhttps://www.vg247.com/2015/11/20/watch-mark-hamill-talk-about-his-role-in-star-citizen-wing-commander/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/11/20/watch-mark-hamill-talk-about-his-role-in-star-citizen-wing-commander/#respondFri, 20 Nov 2015 11:41:02 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=559126Mark Hamill, known for far too many cool roles to name them, will be part of Star Citizen’s campaign mode.

Having recently revealed his involvement with Star Citizen, legendary actor Mark Hamill has sat down with PCGamer to talk about past roles such as Wing Commander (also a Chris Roberts joint) as well his work in Star Citizen’s Squadron 42.

A Star Citizen anniversary stream aired overnight, during which Roberts Space Industries showed a teaser for the new Squadron 42 story campaign module.

This part of the game has a pretty amazing cast, and the teaser showed off Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker and the best known voice of the Joker – in case this is your first day on the Internet) as lieutenant commander Steve “Old Man” Colton. Behold!

Also overnight, RSI posted a breakdown on how ship repairs and maintenance will work once integrated into Star Citizen. I bravely sauntered into this dev blog update prepared to provide an executive summary, but then turned tail and ran. There are diagrams. Brr! Not for the casual onlooker. Better go read it for yourself.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/11/19/star-citizen-dev-teases-mark-hamills-character-details-ship-repairs/feed/0Someone has spent $30,000 on Star Citizen and will spend morehttps://www.vg247.com/2015/11/09/someone-has-spent-30000-on-star-citizen-and-will-spend-more/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/11/09/someone-has-spent-30000-on-star-citizen-and-will-spend-more/#respondMon, 09 Nov 2015 17:45:24 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=557217There’s a person out there who put $30,000 into Star Citizen. Today, he tells everyone why.

Chris (aka Ozy311) is a Star Citizen player who, by his account, has spent $30,000 on the game. Chris owns everything there is to own in, and even multiples of some things.

“I have the highest package in the game, which is called ‘The Completionist with the Million Mile High Club,’ which is a base package that’s $15,000,” Chris told PCGamer.

“It didn’t start out that way, though. When I started getting into the game years ago, it was this and that, and this and that. And then after I started to see the product mature, I was convinced it was what I also dreamed of, and was hooked. I went in deep.”

Chris said he’s been doing some work on the side to be able to afford this expensive hobby, and that he never used credit cards or loans to finance his purchases.

He added that he’s willing to spend more and that he’s proud to have contributed to such a massive project.

“I have seen the game change in so many positive ways due to player feedback. They listen. So it’s not like they’re going to pop the game out at the end and it’s going to suck because of something they didn’t talk with us about. They’re not just going to work behind a closed door, pop it out, and say ‘thanks for the 94 million, hope you like it!’ That’s not what they’re doing at all,” Chris said about this feelings of developer Cloud Imperium.

It’s no secret that Star Citizen continues to grow as a game because of players like Chris who are willing to turn thousands of dollars into in-game ships and other assortments. We’ve lost count of how much the game’s raised so far, and it will undoubtedly keep growing.

Most recently, the studio showed footage of the game’s campaign, which stars multiple Hollywood A-listers such as Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, and more.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/11/09/someone-has-spent-30000-on-star-citizen-and-will-spend-more/feed/0Everyone who backed Star Citizen can now play every modulehttps://www.vg247.com/2015/10/15/everyone-who-backed-star-citizen-can-now-play-every-module/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/10/15/everyone-who-backed-star-citizen-can-now-play-every-module/#respondThu, 15 Oct 2015 04:11:26 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=552756Star Citizen has dropped its premium access tiers in favour of allowing all backers to enjoy every new build.

Star Citizen has attracted 1 million backers now, and all of them can play every bit of the game instead of having to purchase the Alpha Access tier or $5 module passes.

“In honor of our newest Citizen (really, our thousands of new Citizens) we would like to give something back to the entire community for all your incredible support,” Chris Roberts wrote in a Roberts Space Industries news post.

“Anyone who has pledged for a Star Citizen Package can now play today without worrying they won’t have access to some portion of the ‘Verse in the future. No Star Marine pass, no Alpha 2.0 pass… no additional payment needed for any module in the works, pre-release.”

In future, any build which need to be restricted will go up on a public test server, but all backers will be able to access every new, live build on release.

Those who have already paid up to gain premium access will be compensated. Alpha Access pass holders will receive 10,000 UEC and Arena Commander pass holders will receive 5,000 UEC. Credit payments will be made over the next few days.

“You also have my most sincere thanks: you were our vanguard, the battalion that fought the good fight from the beginning,” Roberts said.

“Your impact on Star Citizen will never be forgotten, for without your early faith we couldn’t be where we are today.”

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/10/10/star-citizen-gary-oldman-pc/feed/0Star Citizen: social module released, updated information on Star Marine and Electronic Warfarehttps://www.vg247.com/2015/08/29/star-citizen-pc-social-module/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/08/29/star-citizen-pc-social-module/#respondSat, 29 Aug 2015 17:42:23 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=545000The social module has been released by Star Citizen, which gives players the opportunity to explore various landing zones with up to 24 players.

The module contains a “handful of character configurations,” per Massively. The blog entry on the social module goes into great detail, and it’s rather long, so you might want to give it a read. It’s a better option than having me try to explain it and fail miserably.

Star Citizen is in kind of a weird position. It has shattered crowdfunding records by accumulating a whopping $87.6 million, but has raised controversy by raising some of that total by selling breathtakingly expensive add-on content. It has expanded its scope considerably in response to increased funding, but the project’s timeline has blown out, missing projected launch windows time and time again.

Some players swear by it, and others are mad as all heck. In the midst of all this, some have called for refunds – and Cloud Imperium is processing them. 1,269 refunds have been given out so far, out of 964,995 backers.

“We don’t publicize it, but when people reach out to us and talk to us in a rational manner, in most cases we’ve refunded them,” Cloud Imperium founder Chris Roberts said in a lengthy feature on Polygon.

“In general, our refund numbers are very, very low compared to the rest of the industry. It’s significantly lower than what you get with e-transactions on most games.”

Roberts admitted that there are “some big, vocal people” criticising the game, but said “they’re definitely a minority”.

Cloud Imperium is not legally obliged to give refunds, he added, and does so at its discretion – but if those vocal players aren’t happy, Cloud Imperium just doesn’t want them around.

“We don’t want to keep people around. We don’t want to fight with them,” a spokesperson added.

The full feature includes one amazing story of a $980 backer getting a refund after 30 hours of play time, and comments from a player who is pretty happy with Star Citizen, thank you very much. It’s definitely worth a read if you’ve got strong opinions on Star Citizen.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/08/21/roberts-star-citizen-refund-numbers-very-very-low-definitely-the-minority/feed/0Multi-crew ships for Star Citizen were revealed at gamescom, and here’s the demohttps://www.vg247.com/2015/08/07/star-citizen-multi-crew-ships-gamescom-2015/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/08/07/star-citizen-multi-crew-ships-gamescom-2015/#respondFri, 07 Aug 2015 20:32:12 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=541932Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium unveiled the new multi-crew feature today at gamescom, and if you missed the Twitch stream. you can have a look at the demo for the feature below.

The feature allows multiple players to hop into a spaceship and pilot it together.

According to PCgamesN, the feature builds on the Arena Commander module, and allows players to work the controls, shoot turrets, and create their own space walks.

No matter what the pilot does, each player will have their own version of gravity, so if the ship goes into a spin, the individual player will remain upright.

“You’re not going to have 50 systems to adventure in, but I think most people are going to have a lot of fun,” studio boss Chris Roberts told the site. “I’m actually expecting people to make up their own action story arc.

“So what we’re planning is, we’ll just have different areas you can fly in and visit and do things in, or have some AI that will spawn.”

Objectives are also likely to be “self-set,” and there will be more “team-oriented stuff” which would allow for a combination of larger multi-crew ships and smaller ones as well.

It’s still in the early stages, but you can have a look at how things are going through the video above.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/08/07/star-citizen-multi-crew-ships-gamescom-2015/feed/0Delay of Star Citizen’s FPS module due to a mix of “technical blockers and gameplay issues”https://www.vg247.com/2015/06/30/star-citizen-fps-star-marine-delayed/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/06/30/star-citizen-fps-star-marine-delayed/#respondTue, 30 Jun 2015 19:00:59 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=535875Star Citizen’s FPS module Star Marine has been delayed due to a mix of “technical blockers and gameplay issues.”

Speaking on the Roberts Space Industry website, Chris Roberts said the current build “doesn’t feel like it lives up to the standards we’ve want to achieve with Star Citizen.”

“The most significant technical hurdle faced today is the networking backend,” he stated. “Going into further detail on the technical side of these systems, one of our big hurdles was the creation of the GIM. This new system will be responsible for all the game servers that make up Star Citizen, and we’ve built it to have far more direct control over the internal state and operation of each game server than was available before.

“The GIM not only manages Arena Commander and Star Marine instances, but also provides a solid framework for instanced multiplayer Hangars as well as the instanced Universe game servers that will form the persistent universe. The GIM allocates and recycles game servers at a much faster rate and in a more reliable way than before, helping to get players into the action more quickly and keeping them in their games with less incident.

“A second challenge has been the need to rewrite the game’s Matchmaking system from scratch, taking an entirely different approach to the process that will eliminate long waits during the Match search process. I’m happy to report that, as of this week, the new matchmaking software has been integrated and is undergoing testing.”

Other than the technical aspects, which Roberts goes into great detail on, one of the “biggest issues” was with getting gameplay visuals “right”. While tech engineers work on the backend, other teams will continue to work on Star Marine. Roberts said 15% of the studio is working on the FPS content, and the rest on continued Star Citizen development.

Originally set for release after PAX East in April, a new timeframe release was not noted, but don’t expect it any time soon. However, the team is going to “investigate releasing a build with Star Marine disabled” so players can experience some of the changes and updates made over the last few months to the core code base.

“When will we see Star Marine? Tonight, I don’t have an absolute answer for you. What I will tell you is that we know exactly what we have to do, and we’re already well on our way to doing it,” said Roberts.

The detailed post is through the link, and it is a rather long read.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/06/30/star-citizen-fps-star-marine-delayed/feed/0Star Marine is the name of Star Citizen’s FPS module, dev talks zero-g combathttps://www.vg247.com/2015/05/11/star-marine-is-the-name-of-star-citizens-fps-module-dev-talks-zero-g-combat/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/05/11/star-marine-is-the-name-of-star-citizens-fps-module-dev-talks-zero-g-combat/#respondMon, 11 May 2015 20:48:01 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=526264The FPS module of Star Citizen has been named Star Marine and the developer has detailed its plans for the space-sim’s latest component.

The lengthy post goes over the number of development disciplines that are working on the component, as well as technical aspects like animation, art, environment, movement in zero-g and more.

One interesting part of the update describes a sci-fi sport of sorts called SATA Ball. The game is played in a zero-g arena where two teams spawn at opposite ends. A ball is spawned in the centre and both teams must race towards it to control it. The players can only move using their limbs, as well as a grappling hook.

Shooting will play a small role, but it won’t be the focus of this mode. Players can only disbale their opponents for a short period of time after shooting them.

“Since the days of Wing Commander, I’ve dreamed of integrating a first person shooter with a space sim. It’s such an exciting idea: you might land your fighter on a carrier and then race into battle to repel alien boarders… or you might put down on a seedy border world and fight off pirates eager to steal your cargo,” said Cloud Imperium founder Chris Roberts.

“That’s why we kicked off Star Citizen as a ‘First Person Universe’ right from the start, and it’s why we picked an FPS engine to build on. Star Citizen isn’t like my previous games: you aren’t directly ‘playing’ a ship… you’re controlling a character who is flying a ship. You’ve had first person action against fighters in Arena Commander, you’ve explored your hangar… you’ve even drawn your pistol in combat to take shots at other players and their ships!”

A number of teams within developer Cloud Imperium are working on the update in different ways. When it’s released, it will be in alpha stage, but will feature “animation fidelity and attention to detail that you wouldn’t normally expect in an ‘alpha’ gameplay module.”

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/05/11/star-marine-is-the-name-of-star-citizens-fps-module-dev-talks-zero-g-combat/feed/0Star Citizen earned another $1 million within two weeks – total hits $76 millionhttps://www.vg247.com/2015/03/25/star-citizen-earned-another-1-million-within-two-weeks-total-hits-76-million/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/03/25/star-citizen-earned-another-1-million-within-two-weeks-total-hits-76-million/#respondWed, 25 Mar 2015 15:59:33 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=519608Star Citizen continues its funding streak with backers pumping another $1 million into the game’s development in the last two weeks.

The total earned for the space sim has now reached $76 million ($76,015,532 to be exact) with 851,395 backers contributing to the staggering figure.

Star Citizen’s latest update was version 1.1 which included two more expensive ships, a new manual, a new way to access Arena Commander and the REC rental system along with the new landing system.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/03/25/star-citizen-earned-another-1-million-within-two-weeks-total-hits-76-million/feed/0Star Citizen 1.1 lands with two new ships and a galaxy of small changeshttps://www.vg247.com/2015/03/22/star-citizen-1-1-new-ships-landing-system/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/03/22/star-citizen-1-1-new-ships-landing-system/#respondSun, 22 Mar 2015 23:09:09 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=518948Star Citizen has 1.1, the first major update since the Arena Commander module landed.

Star Citizen 1.1 delivers two more achingly expensive ships.

The update also brings a new manual and a new way to access Arena Commander (and later other modules, too), as well as the REC rental system, a dynamic damage system and better character animations.

Probably the most substantial gameplay change is the new landing system; it’s well worth reading up on over on Roberts Space Industries.

If you like your update details dry and detailed, the full patch notes are available.

This new Star Citizen trailer was released at SXSW and isn’t necessarily indicative of the experience you’ll have playing now – it includes a look at upcoming modules and unrelease content.

It does look far more promising than early footage, though. The project is starting to resemble the promises made at inception, rewarding the record-breaking number of crowdfunding backers for their faith.

]]>https://www.vg247.com/2015/03/16/star-citizen-has-come-a-long-way/feed/0You can try Star Citizen for free with a special code [UPDATE]https://www.vg247.com/2015/03/14/star-citizen-demo-pc-20gb/
https://www.vg247.com/2015/03/14/star-citizen-demo-pc-20gb/#respondSat, 14 Mar 2015 15:23:24 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=517691Those wanting to give Star Citizen from Roberts Space Industries a go can do so for free using one of two codes.